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TMS Bicycle, stable without gyros or trail (TMS=two-mass-skate)

Arend Schwab · 44.5K views · 2011-04-15 · 2:39

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Overview

Arend Schwab demonstrates a research bicycle, the two-mass-skate design, that balances itself without gyroscopic effects or trail. It challenges the common explanations for why a moving bicycle stays upright.

On Hacker News

HN commenters cite it as the author's own demonstration of research showing that bicycle stability is not explained by gyroscopes.

Recommended by 2 HN people across 1 months · HN mentions 2013–2019

Topics

Fundamental physicsMechanical & precision engineeringEveryday physics & science demos
Search by tags
bicycle stabilitygyroscopic effecttrailphysicsself-stability

What people said

schoper · 2013-08 · Recommendation

We do know, here is the paper that the journalist refers to: [LINK] And here is a great video by the author: [VIDEO] Short answer: "a bicycle should turn into a fall."

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aray · 2013-08 · Recommendation

[1] Explanation of the research in question behind this article, as well as a demonstration of the bike they based the research on. They very clearly describe (at the end of the video) that even with gyroscopic and tracking forces removed, the two most important factors are where the center of gravity is, and the tendency to turn into a fall (arguably just the second, but it is caused by the location of the center of gravity with regards to the pivot). [1] [VIDEO] Edit: more info on the TMS (two-mass skate) bike at its wikipedia page: [LINK]

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nitwit005 · 2019-07 · Reference

There was still active research into why bicycles are stable as recently as 2011. Here's a talk about that research: [VIDEO] If the bicycle was some sort of "obvious" machine, people wouldn't still be studying the basic stability mechanics 200 years later. Very few things are as simple as they seem. Even levers can get a bit complicated.

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Sources

Video by Arend Schwab, played through YouTube.

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